theguyinallblue Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 this was making me crazy like anything..why would we need certificates from others to claim that Taj Mahal is one of the wonders of indian craftmanship.. BTW..no monument from pakistan? Bomb banane se phursat mile to kuch aur ke baare me soche...
Gambit Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 GIB can you believe that despite living in Delhi for 12 years I never visited the Taj? Saala yeh rectify karna hoga jaldi :wall:
Ram Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 GIB can you believe that despite living in Delhi for 12 years I never visited the Taj? Saala yeh rectify karna hoga jaldi :wall: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat ! :omg_smile:
theguyinallblue Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 GIB can you believe that despite living in Delhi for 12 years I never visited the Taj? Saala yeh rectify karna hoga jaldi :wall: :haha::haha::haha::haha:...you are talking to soemone who has seen Taj on TV and in photos only...
apocalypse Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 GIB can you believe that despite living in Delhi for 12 years I never visited the Taj? Saala yeh rectify karna hoga jaldi :wall: koi baat nahin... u r not alone
Mandrake Posted July 7, 2007 Posted July 7, 2007 While on vacation in Delhi in 2004, I made a trip to Agra to see the Taj. Having grown up watching numerous pictures on TV and in books,I must confess I thought the whole thing was a bit overrated. As we made our way to the gates of this wonder, the area around looked old and unkempt. However, the moment I entered the grounds and the imposing structure slowly came up in front of my eyes,all my doubts dissolved. It was breathtaking....its difficult to take your eyes off the monument the first time you see it. It was truly spellbinding....almost surreal. It is not one of the most beautiful man made monuments on earth. It is THE most beautiful monument on the planet.
Aditi Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 I visited Agra back in 1995....the Taj Mahal is so stunningly beautiful...took my breath away the first moment I saw it.
Predator_05 Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 It's pathetic. A symbol of oppression at the hands of the blood-thirsty Mughals. Those responsible for it's construction had their thumbs chopped off. I don't understand why it's such a revered figure, architectural marvel or not. It's like an indirect endorsement of Mughal brutality.
karina Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 I feel so stupid, I thought it already was one of the wonders...:omg_smile: Saw a few minutes of the show, Bipasha and Hilary Swank were telling everyone to love the planet, love each other etc. Hilary looked very nice but Bips was wearing the most beautiful sari. Really, how can any dress compete with a sari.
karina Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 It's pathetic. A symbol of oppression at the hands of the blood-thirsty Mughals. Those responsible for it's construction had their thumbs chopped off. I don't understand why it's such a revered figure' date=' architectural marvel or not. It's like an indirect endorsement of Mughal brutality.[/quote'] well it did feed and employ a whole lot of others. besides in those times there were a lot of barbarians in each culture. but I do feel the taj is overrated. when I visited it I was full of anticipation and afterwards I said, 'is that it? how come I didn't faint or lose my senses?' :confused_smile:
kumble_rocks Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 It's pathetic. A symbol of oppression at the hands of the blood-thirsty Mughals. Those responsible for it's construction had their thumbs chopped off. I don't understand why it's such a revered figure' date=' architectural marvel or not. It's like an indirect endorsement of Mughal brutality.[/quote'] I was expecting this from DR not you !:wink_smile:
varun Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 Here's an article on this absurd new-7-wonders-of-world exercise. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Milking_phoney_patriotism/articleshow/2185182.cms Milking Phoney Patriotism Just hours after this story goes to press, the verdict will be out. In Lisbon, a list of the "New7Wonders" will be announced in a glitzy ceremony. The fortunate monuments will be the winners of an 18-month-long worldwide poll through phones and the Internet. And the fate of the Taj Mahal will be clear. The last few weeks, millions of Indians were implored through various forms of media to vote for the Taj in the interest of national loyalty. It is easy to appeal to the patriotic fervour of Indians, especially when hard work is not involved, but what many did not realise is that the whole New7Wonders (N7W) campaign was a private commercial enterprise. The brainchild of Bernard Weber, a Swiss businessman who has also dabbled in films, the campaign was orchestrated by his for-profit corporation called New Open World Corporation (NOWC). Weber roped in Federico Mayor, a former UNESCO director-general, to be part of this project, but UNESCO itself was not involved. Needless to say, this campaign has miffed experts who question the integrity of a private body that will declare a new set of seven wonders. History gives sanctity to only one list of Seven Wonders, the one that was compiled by Greek mathematician Philon of Byzantium in 200 BC. The money-spinner for the campaign was mobile phone voting. In India, the voting rights belonged to a private company called I Media Corporation Limited (IMCL). It controls the number 4567 you sent your SMS votes to. For every rupee spent on sending the SMS, 15 paise went directly to the government in the form of a wireless planning coordination fee. Sixty-four paise went to the cellphone operator you used to vote. The bulk of the remaining rupee was divided in equal halves between a company called IMI which collected all the votes in an electronic vault-like space and media partners like IMCL. Weber made two to three paise for every rupee that was spent on the voting. A remarkable aspect of this poll was that nothing stopped a person from voting many times. Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni has said that the project was "absurd" and described Weber, as a man, "concerned primarily with self-promotion". Nagib Amin, an Egyptian expert on world heritage sites, has pointed out that, "In addition to the commercial aspect, the vote has no scientific basis." Egypt has voiced its concerns that such campaigns may undermine the preeminence of its pyramids, the only surviving Wonder among the historical Seven Wonders of the World compiled by Philon. In reaction to such opposition, Weber made the pyramids of Giza an "Honorary New7Wonders Candidate". This meant that the place of the pyramids was secure as an additional Wonder to the seven being voted upon. There was no such outrage in India. Instead, radio jockeys and advertisements tried to whip up a fear. They said grimly that the Taj is lagging by millions of votes and that Indians must quickly do something about this. They said, if you really loved India and by that association, the Taj, you must vote. A commercial even had a blind boy asking Indians to vote. "I have heard it is beautiful," he said in a heartbreaking way. The N7W campaign proved how overtly and how easily nationalism can be exploited to make money for a few. Meanwhile, the Taj is yellowing. The pollution around it is slowly destroying it. The Yamuna, on whose banks this monument has stood for centuries, is a national embarrassment. And Agra continues to be a miserable, filthy town, an unworthy host to a magnificent symbol of love. Saving the Taj will require the kind of heroic political effort that has not been witnessed in free India. And it is improbable that such an effort will be undertaken. When it comes to expressing vacant patriotism, Indians have always chosen the easier option. In the case of Weber's gambit, lakhs of Indians had to just press some buttons. And they apparently did.
Guest dada_rocks Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 I don't mind Taj being crownd anything but whenver I hear Taj it reminds me of Burtarand Russel's words.. Taj is the monument of how India and europe verring into different direction one towards mindless prfligacy which eventually drained it into non-entity wheras Euroe take roue of indtstrial revolution. Having said that there is no harm as of today in milking some tourism money by popularizing Taj. But in terms of symblism in Indian connotation it remains a negative one. But hey who cares about symbolism of posterity let us milk it as much as we can... Wah Taj..:thumbs_up:
gorah_pindu Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 1). India has better monuments. 2). Now the Taj will be even more of a steriotypical symbol. 3). This vote was a blatent money making venture with no meaning.
Rajiv Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 its for the tourist industry, so the guys who made it got their hands cut how cruel is that
King Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 its for the tourist industry, so the guys who made it got their hands cut how cruel is that Is that really true though? I've heard it's only a myth. I've heard the versions that the Taj resembles the structure of heaven as described in Koran. The idea behind the construction was to set up a structure as described in Koran and the reason the Emperor insisted he wanted to be buried there was to reach heaven. It was quite an interesting documentary that one and I must have that DVD somewhere.
Rajiv Posted July 8, 2007 Posted July 8, 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/netnotes/article/0,,1314841,00.html 2. It took at least 20,000 people 22 years to build it. The artisans that worked on the Taj are reputed to have had their hands cut off after the building was completed to prevent them building a comparable building. ______________ A question that has often cropped up in relation to the beautiful monument of love is "were Taj Mahal's craftsmen mutilated". Without any proper records and evidence, this question has remained like a myth to the people. The mutilations in Taj Mahal myth, goes that the craftsmen who had taken part in the construction of the Taj were disfigured after its completion. It is said that Shah Jahan got the hands of his architects and sculptors cut off so that they may never be able to build a monument as magnificent as the Taj again in their lifetime. The legend of mutilations in Taj, further states that he even got their eyes pulled out so that they would never be able to witness anything more beautiful than the monument that they had built. However, this myth hasn't been proven to be correct, till date. ?/maybe
Zap_Brannigan Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Its basically a symbol of love.....but built on oppression and near slavery. But is it really any different than the pyramids,which were built on the blood of the slaves or Colosseum,built so that ppl can be amused by the sight of people killing each other. or even the redeemer statue.......spending millions when half the people in their country was dying of poverty.
gorah_pindu Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Dont you guys think India has better monuments anyway? I sure do. The Taj may be hewn from marble, with presious inlays, but there are temples in India that took centuries to carve out of almost dimond-hard rock, in such detail that even someone using computer aided design would have a hard time replicating them. That coupled with enormous scale. There are very few monuments more impressive, and the Taj is not one of them. This exercise is money making has only served to re-inforce the steriotypical image of India as some land of boring domes.
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